realia

English

Etymology

From Late Latin realia, neuter plural of realis (“real”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹeɪˈɑːlɪə/, /ɹiːˈeɪlɪə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːliə, -eɪliə

Noun

realia pl (plural only)

1. Objects from real life or from the real world, as opposed to theoretical constructs or fabricated examples.
   • 2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 28:

     It might be possible, for example, to work backwards from the known realia of Visigothic Spain.

2. (linguistics) Words and expressions for culture-specific material elements.
3. (libraries, information science) Physical objects in a library collection that do not fit into traditional categories of media, whose media are the objects themselves, as opposed to their informational content, such as artifacts, tools, memorabilia, and naturally-occurring specimens.
   • 2002 April 14, Lev Grossman, “Catalog This”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 2021-05-21, Education Life, page 26:

     "We acquire entire collections of materials for research purposes," explains Saundra Taylor, curator of manuscripts at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington. "That inevitably includes something that's not books or manuscripts."

     Such as? "We have teeth, hair, all kinds of goofy things like that," says Katharine Salzmann, archivist and manuscripts curator at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. "We don't set out to buy them. It's just a happenstance kind of thing. Someone tosses them in the box, or forgets they're in the envelope."

     These unanticipated acquisitions are referred to in the trade variously as personal effects, ephemera, artifacts, memorabilia and, perhaps most evocatively, realia.

Translations

real objects or facts

• French: realia (fr) f
• Hungarian: reália (hu)
• Norwegian: realia m pl
• Polish: realia f pl
• Russian: реа́лия (ru) f (reálija)

Anagrams

• aerial, aërial

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin reālia (“real (things)”), neuter plural of reālis (“real”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /reˈa.lja/
• Rhymes: -alja
• Hyphenation: re‧à‧lia

Noun

realia m pl (plural only)

1. realia

Further reading

• realia in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Adjective

reālia

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural of reālis

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

realia m pl (definite realiene)

1. realia

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

realia n pl

1. realia

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin realia, neuter plural of realis (“real”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rɛˈa.lja/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -alja
• Syllabification: re‧a‧lia

Noun

realia f

1. realia (objects from real life or from the real world, as opposed to theoretical constructs or fabricated examples)
2. (literature, film) backstory, background

Declension

Declension of realia

	plural
nominative	realia
genitive	realiów
dative	realiom
accusative	realia
instrumental	realiami
locative	realiach
vocative	realia

Related terms

adjectives

• antyrealistyczny
• realistyczny
• realizacyjny
• realizatorski
• realnoznaczeniowy
• realny

 

adverbs

• realistycznie
• realizacyjnie
• realnie

 

nouns

• antyrealizm
• realista
• realistka
• realistyka
• realizacja
• realizator
• realizatorka
• realizatorstwo
• realizm
• realniak
• realność

 

verbs

• realizować
• realnieć
• zrealizować

 

Further reading

• realia in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• realia in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Swedish

Etymology

From Late Latin realia, neuter plural of realis (“real”).

Noun

realia n pl

1. (linguistic pedagogy) facts about conditions in the country where the language is spoken (as opposed to grammar and vocabulary)

References

• realia in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• realia in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• realia in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)